In the US, there is no shortage of “humanitarian” trips to communist Cuba by artists, teachers, and researchers. Most of them are organized by individuals who have come to admire the murderous regime for its so-called societal advances in education and medical care. Very few, if any of these individuals, are honest enough to admit that teaching a population to read and then severely restricting their access to reading materials is just as heinous as maintaining them in an illiterate state. And one would be hard pressed to find one of these promoters of the dictatorship that would actually confess the reality that Cuba’s vaunted healthcare system is nothing more than a carefully crafted lie that benefits only tourists and the dictatorship’s oligarchy.
But America is not only made up of these elitist apologists. And although sometimes they seem to be the only ones out there, once in a while you come across a true American who is honest and willing to say the truth. These are the Americans that do not allow themselves to be used as pawns of the snobby liberal establishment in this country, and refuse to blindly repeat the same lies fed to them by the totalitarian Cuban regime.
It started with an innocuous cold in the capitol city of Havana, but this little and annoying viral episode proved to be the event that would remove the scales from they eyes of Lancaster, PA, correspondent Sally Melcher Jarvis.
It was like being in a dream where two different things can happen at the same time. We were in a two-tier system: one for the privileged (tourists, for example) and the other for those who lived and worked in socialist Cuba.
Our luxurious state-owned hotel was closed to Cubans, except for those who worked there. A Cuban could not even come in for a meal.
Read the rest of Ms. Jarvis’ epiphany HERE.
“The decay and lack of merchandise are blamed on the American embargo, in place since 1960.”
Too bad she fails to mention that any other nation can trade with Cuba, and there are plenty of goods to be had, but Castro’s credit is in the toilet.
Furthermore, pharmaceuticals aren’t covered by the embargo anyways, are they?
And I’m always curious about claims of 100% literacy. Are all the kids out in the provinces really literate, or just the kids schooled in Havana? We could easily claim a 100% literacy rate in the U.S., if you consider a 5th grade reading level literate.
Scott:
I all fairness, she followed up the embargo remark with this:
“Still, I wondered if a socialist government in 50 years could not come up with something better for its people.”
Just the fact that an American went to Cuba expecting to find the workers’ paradise so many here boast about, and instead found an oppressive regime that practices apartheid should not be downplayed. We have to take these little victories when they come, and hopefully, they will help more and more people realize the truth about Cuba.
As you may already know, Alberto, I have Cuba Alerts from Google on my iMac. Majority of these are pure propaganda. I was startled to see the posting from Ms. Jarvis, who lives in the PA Dutch Country. That she was on a humanitarian trip from a museum strikes me as a great leap forward in educating Americans about the plight of the Island.
She was not in a group of academic liberals, but with folks taking medications and school supplies. Her group may not be fully aware of
the regime’s standard excuses regarding the embargo, but she
was bright enough to figure out that apartheid exists in every
aspect of Cubans lives. I applaud her for writing this article and hope that she will, indeed, visit “the real cuba” site. I would have replied directly to her, but the Lancaster Online site
is a disaster. I’ll write her a letter instead.
I was able to read some of the posted comments to her article.
Therein lies the proof that we need more articles like hers to educate Americans. Medicine and medical supplies have NEVER
been embargoed. Canadians can vacation in Cuba because their country is not a party to the embargo and is one of Cuba’s
largest trading partners. There is much disinformation in the
comments section to her piece, but one valuable Cuban voice.
How did he manage to settle in Amish country?
I have given up reading the comments left by the supporters of a despotic regime. All of them advocate the advances of the revolution from the comfort of their centrally heated or air-conditioned homes, located in a democratic and free country, using their large LCD displays to repeat the talking-points fed to them by their masters on internet forums with their high-speed, always-on, internet connections.
If they for one moment beleived they would have a higher quality of life in Cuba, they would have moved there. Instead, they limit their contact to Cuba as tourists to ensure they do not sufffer the same restrictions, the same hunger, and the same repression the common Cuban suffers.
They are the prototypical leftist elitists that have plagued this world for ages. They are all for communism, as long as they don’t have to live in it.
Grammy in Phil:
we Cuban exiles are everywhere!